 Welcome, trying to get myself situated here. I got here early for a reason. All right. Good to see everybody this morning. Glad you're here and welcome to Sunday School. We have been over the last week, we began a new series on Sunday mornings during these classes covering the documents of the church. As we discussed, part of our plan for doing that is that for the foreseeable future, we're going to embark on a study of the church or church doctrine on Sunday mornings in conjunction with the preaching on Sunday nights. We feel like coordinating those things that way helps us to retain that information more, right? When we're sort of submerged in one subject for a period of time, directed or intentional study, we tend to remember those things tend to sink in better. We hope it's going to sink in for you, for me too, over the next several months together. As we consider the doctrine of the church, we're going to continue our essential study on Sunday night. Tonight, we're going to be talking about the unity of the church. So flowing out of communion of the saints, which we covered last Sunday night, we'll talk about unity of the church this evening. I pray that'll be a blessing to you. This morning, we're continuing a three-part series, this is part number two, on the documents of the church. And our intention is to begin this short series with the documents of the church, covering those documents that are essential to our life together as covenanted members of Cornerstone Baptist Church. So with that, we'll study the constitution last week, the covenant this morning, and then the confession next week. And then we'll begin a series of subjects related to the church that we don't often get to cover in our sort of day-to-day life together in the church. And so we're going to take opportunity on Sunday mornings during our Bible class to talk about some things that are pressing and important. Among those are, one, the regulative principle. I think we're going to spend some time discussing that. So we all know what that is, why it's so important, and then probably most important for us is how to apply it biblically, right? So if you've ever had questions about regulative principle, how the Bible is to regulate our worship and why we do the things we do, right? Why did we make a transition from a band to a leader? From a band to Pastor Jerome. Why do we do things like that? Why don't we make the decisions we've made? And those things are all very, very important and they're very, very intentional. And I'd like for us to be on the same page with that to understand the process behind that. So we're going to spend some time talking about the regulative principle. I feel like we'll probably spend some time talking about Christian liberty and the use of, the understanding of our liberty, the liberty that we have in Christ and how we apply that in the church. Oftentimes, we know that we have freedom in Jesus Christ but then how we express our freedom, how we understand our freedom is sometimes a little more difficult in practice. And so we wanna spend some time on Christian liberty. Beyond that, we want to spend some time on church and state, the relationship between the church and the state and what we're calling a theology of Christian resistance or a political theology, a theology of public life for the church. So that's going to be very important. There are many issues involved with that. It's not as simple as saying we just need to do everything the government says to do. It's simply not that easy. And we wanna take some time. We wanna dig into that, understand that, understand our relationship to the state, our responsibilities to the state, their responsibilities to us and how the spheres overlap, the spheres of authority overlap and how they don't. We'll talk about that in detail and then we'll also probably take some time at the end of this study to deal with social justice. The issues related to social justice, the influence or impact of social justice now in the church. So that's going to be our agenda over the next probably six to eight months. Regulative principle, Christian liberty, church and state social justice. And as you know, those are all hot button, hot topic issues, hot pocket issues right now in the church, fresh out of the oven and steaming hot and we wanna be able to understand what's going on. Part of the reason for that too, and I'm sure you all now beginning to understand with respect to current events, is that that persecution is coming from. I don't think it's a mystery to anyone. We can't simply stick our heads in the sand and imagine that things are just going to be okay here. We do tend to be a little isolated out here in the sticks. Here in Chuliota, got a little country church and nobody knows where we're here. A lot of, yeah, most people don't know we're here. And that may isolate us to some degree, but that is coming and we've seen that in the recent arrest of the pastor in Canada. So that's gonna, and so frankly, when I'm arrested, I want you to be able to do all this stuff on your own. I want you to be able to think on, want us to be able to think on our own. I want us to be able to understand these things from the Bible and from what I've heard of that church in Canada, I expect the same would be true here. It's just next up, right? Batter up, who's next? So if, what did MacArthur say, if we get arrested, well, we start a prison ministry and who's next, next person on deck, right? And the Lord has been exceedingly gracious to us here to raise up men who are prepared for that. And so in more ways than one. So I'm very grateful to the Lord for that, very grateful for the time we're gonna get to spend together. And I pray it'll be a blessing to you. Keep that in prayer because there are a lot of issues and some difficulties with putting a study like that together for you. And I pray it'll be a blessing. Okay, so this morning then, we are talking about the documents of the church and we come this morning to the covenant. And so what I wanted to do with these three lessons, Constitution, Covenant and Confession, Edgar's gonna cover the confession for us next week, is I wanted to give us a background of the document itself. What is the basis for its general use? Why do we have such a thing called a constitution? Why do we use such a document as a covenant? Why is that important? Secondly, we wanted to review the reasons for their specific form. Why does our constitution take the form that it does? We saw last week there are individual reasons, there are corporate reasons, there are legal reasons. Why do we use a church covenant? We'll talk about that this morning. And then why the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, we'll talk about that next week, all right? And then we wanna provide an overview of their basic content. Last week we didn't quite get to that with respect to the constitution. I'll leave that to you to read on your own. This week I have more notes on the covenant, we likely won't get there on the covenant this morning either, so I pray that you'll be looking at your covenant. If you're a member here, we recite that covenant together every leadership meeting or every membership matters that we have. And that's because it is a living document among us. These aren't dusty documents we put on the shelf and never look at, these are things that matter to our life together as Christians here. And we refer to them often and depend upon them often. And so we wanna be familiar with them. We have notes available, maybe if the brothers have copies of the outline, if you don't have an outline, they can bring one around to you. We have outlines for you available and you'd have a copy of the covenant also, there should be copies coming around as well. Okay, let's begin then with discussion of our covenant and we begin with point one, the basis for its general use, basis for its general use. Now I consider this basis, the basis for the general use of a church covenant. Why do we have a church covenant? Why would we use one? I consider that under two headings. One is indicative, one is imperative. If you've been around here for any length of time, you know that an indicative from scripture is a statement of fact, a general assertion of truth and there are indicative statements of scripture that support imperatives, the imperatives of scripture, those things that are commanded in the Bible. And so let's consider first the indicative reasons for why we would have a covenant. The first of those is the communion of the saints, the communion of the saints, the disunion of the aintz, the communion of the saints. When we are united to Jesus Christ through faith, we are brought into union or communion with his body, the church as well. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago on Sunday evening in that sermon on the communion of the saints. We're brought into union with Jesus Christ through faith and by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ, our head, we are in union with one another, his body. That is what our confession might refer to as a mystical union that is a true union, a spiritual union and it bears fruit in the church. It's not just a word that we use. It's not just something that reflects all of us physically in the same building together. There is a union that we have with one another by his spirit that comes to us by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ. All the saints through their union with Jesus Christ, their head are united to one another in love. Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, verse 19 that we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. That whole building now growing up into a holy temple in the Lord. Now in scripture, there are tons of metaphors, a lot of metaphors that communicate this union that we have with one another. Just, we don't need the mic, just throw out some of those metaphors. What are the metaphors that we see in the Bible for our union together? Right. Yeah, the body, very good, right? And 1 Corinthians 12 lays that out really neat with all the parts of the body, right? We being many parts, nevertheless, are one body. Somebody give me another one. Ephesians chapter two. Very good. So the analogy of the husband and wife together and our relationship with Jesus Christ, our head, very good. Somebody else, another. We've got lots of them, right, Tyler? Temple of God. Temple of God, and I love that one, right? One of the reasons I love that one is because of the types and shadows in the Old Testament, right? In the Old Testament, they're building a brick and mortar temple. Well, that brick and mortar temple, which is a dwelling place of God by the Spirit, is now being built up under the new covenant with living stones. We are the temple of the living God. So when you see temple imagery in the New Testament, we're to see that through a new covenant lens. We're not talking about brick and mortar buildings anymore, right? So those dispensationalists that are sort of waiting around for the brick and mortar rebuilding of an actual temple over there in Jerusalem, they're missing the point altogether of what the New Testament is talking about. Really good. Some others, some other metaphors. We've got several of them, right? What about the vine and the branches, our vital union to Jesus Christ, the vine and the branches? What about a shepherd, the shepherd and his flock? We are a royal priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices to God, so we are together a royal priesthood. We are a chosen generation. This is speaking of our corporate identity, right? We're not only or merely a chosen people, a chosen individual, we are a nation, a chosen generation. We are his own special people, a dwelling place of God in the spirit. Branch is connected to the vine, the household of God, right? We are the household of God and we use familial terms to communicate that. We're brothers and sisters. We have our heavenly father, who we are privileged to refer to as father in prayer. All these things are really important. We are one body having many members. All the members of that one body being many are one body, Jesus Christ the head. Ryan referenced 1 Corinthians 12 a minute ago. In verse 13, Paul says that for by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. One body, one flock, one nation, one race, right? One temple, one building, one family, one priesthood, one people, one household. Our union with Jesus Christ and our union, one with another. One hope of our calling, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. How many times does the Lord refer to through the human author in the New Testament refer to our union with Jesus Christ and our union one with another? Ephesians chapter four, verse 16, from Jesus Christ, the whole body, joint and knit together by what every joint supplies. Now listen to a couple of points from this passage, right? We're talking about the basis for the use of a covenant and the general basis or the basis for its general use of a covenant, it begins here, right? And we're gonna make that case for you as we go. From Jesus Christ, the whole body is joined and knit together. It's by virtue of our union with the head. And then he says by what every joint supplies. Now a joint, if you know some even basic anatomy, we have joints, minor creaking and decaying and getting more painful with every year that passes. We have these joints in our body. What is that? That's a connection of two things, right? It's a connective tissue. It's a joint and that joint supplies something in the body. So if you think about what Paul is saying there in Ephesians chapter four, verse 16, every person, every individual Christian is connected to the body and they're connected to the body, so to speak, through a joint, right? And that joint supplies. There is a supply that comes from the head, Lord Jesus Christ, comes from the spirit. There's also a supply that comes from that person connected to the body, right? There's a by which every joint supplies and then he says, according to the effective working by which every part does it share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. That's a mouthful, but listen, what is Paul saying there? We have Jesus Christ our head. We have the body of Christ, which are its members made up of many members, but one body and we have many connections, right? All of you here who are through faith, the church is a vital means through which the spirit of God works to impart, sustain, preserve a life of the body. What happens to a branch that is disconnected from the vine? It withers and dies and in the end it's gathered up and thrown into the fire, right? So we are to be vines, branches, vitally connected to the vine. If you aren't vitally connected to the vine, you are a dry, dead, withered branch in no time at all. If not one for real, which will be gathered up at the end and thrown into the fire, you should be connected through the vital means that God has appointed to grow his body. And that is the church sitting under the word of God, the preaching of the word of God, prayer, fellowship, communion of the saints, right? All these are vital, healthy means through which God builds up and edifies his body and sustains and preserves his body. If you're not vitally connected, you're in trouble. All right, so what then, we think about that truth that's communicated frequently in the Bible, right? All the time, we hear, don't we? I'm a Christian, but I don't go to church. Yeah, I think you've got that wrong. I remember witnessing to a guy one time and he said to me, I don't need church. I go in my bathroom, when I wake up in the morning and I have my church there, I pray and read my Bible. Like, man, just what a horrendous, self-willed, absurd, hell-bound way of thinking about the church. And what's so deceptive and what's so insidious about that error is that because a person is separated from those vital means, they begin to imagine to themselves that it's okay that I'm separated from those vital means, right? I'm a Christian because of some experience I had or some thing I did, whatever the case may be, I believe, right, and yet they're completely disconnected from that vital means and they're dying inside. And one of the deceptions associated with that slow, progressive, apostasizing death is that they don't realize that they're dead. So it's very deceptive. We need to stay connected to those means that the Lord has appointed for the life, health, growth, maturity, preservation of his body. Now, that connection bears fruit. Give me some of the blessings and benefits. Just throw out one word answers. Blessing and benefits, fruits associated with that communion. Spiritual growth, amen. That was two words, though. That's a joy, yes, that's good. Accountability, we are our brother's keeper, right? We do have a responsibility. We're gonna talk about that in a minute. Yes, what else? Sanctification, it's another word for growth, spiritual growth. It's very good. Encouragement, yes. And it's interesting, the word for encouragement is a twofold word. It does double duty, often in scripture, both exhortation and encouragement. We need both, right? I don't need to, I'm not coming to church just merely to feel good, although when I come, I feel good, like when I'm being hammered about the head and shoulders with my sin, I'm like, please, give it to me, I need that. That's good for me, you know? But it's also exhortation, right? We need to continue to press on in the faith, right? Very good, what else? Serving, yeah, very good. Corporate worship, that's two words too, but we'll take it, corporate worship. Yes, we come together to worship, right? And that's the fruit of this, worship is the fruit of the spirit, right? We turn to the Lord in faith, you worship. Yes, praise the Lord. Fellowship, yeah, really good. We enjoy fellowship, communion. Oftentimes, fellowship and communion use synonymously, but there is a nuanced distinction between the two, right? Fellowship flows from our communion, yeah. Yes, praise the Lord. So an outsider comes in and also just our testimony to the world. We're here on a Sunday morning doing that for which we have been delivered, saved, right? Very good, okay, all those things true. We can see many, many fruits in scripture related to that communion. The key here that I think Paul is referring to in Ephesians chapter four, verse 16, is gifts of God's grace employed in the body for the edification of itself in love. For all of this to take place, right? For this effective working to take place in the body, the Lord gives gifts of God's grace, gives gifts for this to happen. Listen to what Paul says, Ephesians chapter four, verse 12. Turn that with me if you got that. Ephesians 412, these gifts are for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry. And these gifts are for the edifying of the body of Christ, verse 13, until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ so that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But rather than all that, speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ, right? These come through the employment of our spiritual gifts in the body, our service to the body. I mentioned service a second ago, right? We serve the body, we employ our gifts in the body, we become a joint, we through a joint are connected to the body, and by which we do our share, we cause effective work in the body, whereby we are edified, causes growth for the edification of the body and love. Romans chapter 12, verse four, for as we have many members in one body, all members do not have the same function. So we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. Indicative to imperative, do you see? The indicative, we are a joint, we are a connection to the body, brought together by connective tissue, the spirit of God, employed in the body, set in communion with the body under the authority of our head. Imperative then, it flows out of that indicative truth, use your gifts, serve the body. Now some of us don't always know exactly what our gifts are. You just show up and serve, show up in love, right? Do those things which you, according to your conscience, your thoughts, your desires, do those things that you can and love the body. You give, you pray, you fellowship, you talk to one another, you show up and you do those things and it's amazing how the Lord will begin to direct that and mold that and shape that and use that, okay? But it is an imperative. It's not merely that we just think to ourselves, I'm gonna show up, right? I sneak in five minutes late and I'm bolting out five minutes early and you have a responsibility, right? You come with the knowledge of that responsibility and you seek to serve the body. You'll see how the Lord will work through that. Indicative to imperative, if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. That's the imperative. That's what you do, right? That's what you do. I would encourage you, take a look at Romans chapter 12 and think there about how you can be an effective supplying connection to the body. And begin to do those things, right? I see brothers and sisters all around us, we have them as an example to us, brothers and sisters in this body who exhort, who give with liberality, they lead with diligence, they show mercy, cheerfulness, right? They're abhorring what is evil all over slack. And that's good. That's a good example to all of us. Abhor what is evil, or they are cling to what is good, right? They're being kindly affectionate to one another. These are basic things, but critically important things. We have responsibility in the Bible. Okay, so we've moved on then from indicative statements or assertions of truth. Now we've moved on to imperatives or statements of command, responsibilities of our community together. Everywhere in the New Testament, there are commandments from our head with respect to the responsibilities that we have as members of his body all over the New Testament, right? Paul says, these things I write, says this to Timothy, first Timothy chapter one, or first Timothy chapter three, these things I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. It speaks to our responsibility in communion with one another as members of his body. We have responsibility, okay? These responsibilities are summarized in chapter 27 of our confession of the communion of saints, article one. All saints that are united to Jesus Christ, their head by his spirit and faith, although they are not made thereby one person with him, they have fellowship in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection and glory, and being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other's gifts and graces and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private in an orderly way as to conduce to or lead to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man, okay? That's our confession of faith, very wise, very good statement, very helpful to think about. Notice this statement concerns our obligation toward those with whom we have communion. We're talking about our obligations toward those with whom we have communion and we have communion with them in each other's gifts and graces, those are those in our immediate sphere of influence, those with whom we're in church together, right? So if you're not in church together, then you don't have that communion, right? These are people whom we are to serve, those whom we've been appointed or brought into communion with into fellowship with, we're to serve them, those in the local church as who Paul is talking about. All right, concerning that last statement then, by virtue of being brought into communion with one another, we are, confession says, obliged, that's the imperative, right? We're speaking, we spoke of indicatives, now we're speaking of imperatives, we are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, in an orderly way. It's one of the reasons that we are very intentional here about things like small group, things like evangelism, because these are a means through which in an orderly, in an orderly way, we perform such duties, public and private, as we are obliged to perform, do you see? So we're very intentional about those things. It's corporate evangelism is a means, small group is a means. I think the Bible commands intentional evangelism, but that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone in the church will participate in corporate evangelism. Corporate evangelism is simply a means and it's a blessed means through which we can edify one another, exhort one another, encourage one another and preach the gospel together and learn how to preach the gospel together and disciple others in preaching the gospel. Small group, a means through which we accomplish the one another's in scripture. There are many ways to skin that cat. We've chosen to skin it through small group. But the truth is that the cat has to be skinned. All right, that's good of all cats. Okay, so we only one good cat, that's a dead cat. We only one good cat, that's a dead cat. No, so offending people for cat jokes this morning. Okay, listen, we can become hearers only deceiving ourselves if we don't take advantage of our opportunity for means through which we accomplish these things, right? If we came to church together on a Sunday morning, every Sunday morning from behind the pulpit we're preaching on Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and we're saying to everybody, do the one another's, right? Exort one another daily while it's called today and love one another and bear one another's burdens and pray for one another and do all these things. And then we leave that building and we go home. We live our life during the week, working our jobs and spending time with our families, doing what we do during the week and then we come back to church on a Sunday morning and we hear the same message. These are the things that you need to do. Corporate, you need to evangelize, preach the gospel to lost people and then we go home, right? You can inadvertently, sometimes inadvertently, teach people to be hearers only deceiving themselves and not doers of the word. So we believe that it is part of the responsibility for us as church members to facilitate the obedience of God's people by providing opportunity through means such as small group, such as corporate evangelism times, that's not in any way legalistic. We are simply providing opportunity for the people of God to obey the commands of God for the benefit and love of one another and love for the loss with the gospel, okay? But that's why we're intentional about those things. All right, we're obliged to the performance of those duties in the same way in which our communion is explicitly taught in scripture, indicative, mutual obligations in keeping with that union are explicitly commanded in scripture imperatives. Do you get that? Okay. One, corporately toward the world, commands are given to local churches. For example, one of those commands is the Great Commission, the corporate mission of the local church to make disciples, go therefore into all the world preach the gospel to every creature, go therefore, make disciples, teaching those disciples to observe all things that I've commanded, okay? We are given a mission, that's one of our commands, but also, number two, mutually toward one another, we're given many commands in scripture. John chapter 13, a beautiful picture of this service as Jesus Christ taking a basin of water, towel, girds his waist, he kneels to wash the disciples' feet. Verse 14, the Lord says, if I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, served you in this way, you also ought to wash one another's feet, and that's figurative. I'm not gonna let you touch my feet, but I love you and we should serve one another, we should serve one another in that way, right? This is an example, he says, verse 15, for I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. It's a beautiful picture of how we are to love and serve one another, okay? Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24, let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as is the habit of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more, as you see the day approaching. Don't make it a habit of forsaking the assembly, don't do it. Let us consider one another, stir one another up to love and good works, and show up so much the more, as you see the day approaching. 1 Peter 4-10, as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Other one another examples, what are some others in scripture? Throw those out, just shout them out. You can use more than one word. Forgive, it's one word, that's good. Thank you, that's maturity right there, forgive, yes. What else, other one word, other one another's. We're to forgive one another, pray, we're to pray for one another, another one word, pardon. Exort one another, love one another. Encourage one another, this is a tall order, isn't it? What's that? Feed one another, yes, yes, feed one another. We do very well here, with testimony of that. What else, yes, the Ramie. Yeah, slay down our lives for our brothers, amen. Weep for one another, yeah, very good. Now, if you, oh, Robinson, yes, esteem one another more highly than ourselves. Bear each other's burdens. Edify one another, yeah. Brianna, yes, that's right, that's right, right? Times when we have to correct one another, rebuke one another, exhort one another, encourage one another, but yes, practice of church discipline. All right, so here's what I want you to do then. I want you to go home after Sunday school, or after church this afternoon. And I want you to, I want you to sit down, I want you to make yourself out of checklist. Put all these things, you got to list all of them out, right? And then boxes next to them for every day of the week. And every day I want you to sit down and I want you to go through that and every day that you do that thing, you got to check it off your list, right? So you better make sure you've got to check in that box for every day of the week, is that going to be effective for a, no, it's not going to be effective in the slightest. How do we obey these commands? How do we facilitate our endeavoring by the spirit to love one another in this way? How do we do it? Yeah, accountability, I think we can hold one other accountable, we can show up. What's sort of the most fundamental way in which these things are accomplished? Pray, certainly prayer. Being together, being in one another's lives, right? We have to be invested in one another. There is no way that these things are consistently done unless we are invested in one another's lives, unless I know you and you know me, and unless we are present together. All right, so Paul in Romans chapter one, I long to be with you. I'm looking for any way I can, any means I can in the will of God just to be with you. So that I may impart some spiritual gift to you and establish you in the faith and encourage you and love you in that way, right? It's like we have to be together. We have to be together. There is no substitute for that. And boy, it's an amazing gift of God's grace, isn't it? That when we are together, and when we have that kind of spiritual life with one another, what the Lord Jesus Christ does through that means. Right, look around. We enjoy a blessed peace here, a blessed unity, a blessed fellowship, a sweet love. We enjoy the grace of God to us through those means. You have to live life together in order for that to be the case. We have to, there's a communion, a vital communion of the saints, a vital fellowship that must take place, okay? That's why in when you go to churches out there, don't suggest it, that you go in and like nobody talks to you for starters, you know, I hear that over and over and over and over again. And then, you know, people are strangers, right? Church becomes just something we do on a Sunday morning in the same building together, but no more than that. It is way more than that. And if that's all you're doing, you're in trouble. So, yeah, we need the church. Yeah, we need the church. Okay, we've talked a lot about that. Secondly, then the reason for its specific forms. Now, the basis for its general use, why do we use a church covenant? It's a church covenant, the use of a church covenant flows out of communion of the saints and all of those mutual responsibilities that we have to one another as vital members of the body of Christ, okay? There is a communion of the saints and there are responsibilities with that communion. So, covenants, church covenants have flown, flown, they have flowed out of that basic understanding, communion of the saints and responsibilities associated with that communion. Why do we have a covenant? Because we are to be in communion with one another and we have responsibilities associated with that communion. Everybody got it? Any questions to this point with respect to point number one? Any questions? Okay, point number two, then. The reasons for its specific form. Why did it take the form of a covenant? Why does it take the form of a covenant? One, we are in communion with one another. Two, we've been given important responsibilities associated with that communion. Why then do we employ the use of a church covenant? Because that responsible communion necessitates an accountable commitment, okay? Why do we use a covenant? Because that responsible communion necessitates an accountable commitment. All those words are important. Most people who attend churches are entirely unfamiliar with or don't give two hoots about biblical commitment to the local church. They consider it a common or a light thing. Churches are commodities like publics, right? I go to the one, I'm gonna go to this one, is this across street? I can go to that one down the street because it's near my house. Doesn't matter, right? It's just a commodity. They have no earthly idea what the Bible teaches about commitment to the local church. Commitment to the church is, A, an accountable commitment. It's an accountable commitment. One is distinguished from the world. It's accountable in the sense that we are to be distinguished from the world. Who should be treated as believers and who should be treated as unbelievers? It matters. And the Bible gives us specific cases in which it matters. Listen to 1 Corinthians chapter five, verse nine. Paul says, 1 Corinthians chapter five, verse nine, I wrote to you in my epistle, not to keep company with sexually immoral people, yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world or for that matter with covetous or extortioners or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. Paul tells us not to keep company with sexually immoral people. He's not talking about lost people in the world, right? We see those people as an object of evangelism. We're to preach the gospel to them so that they might be saved. Paul says, verse 11, but now I've written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother who is sexually immoral or covetous or an idolater or a vile or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even to eat with such a person, okay? There are those who are inside, those who are outside, those who are inside who should be outside because they're acting like outsiders. We need to know the difference. For what have I to do, verse 12, what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? That judgment speaks to an accountable commitment to the Lord's church, Lord's body, a profession of faith, right? It is an accountable commitment to a profession that you've made to follow the Lord Jesus Christ in repentant faith. Those who are outside, God judges, therefore put away from yourselves the evil person. Listen to Acts chapter 20, verse 28. Therefore, Paul says to the elders who've met him from Miletus, the elders of the church at Ephesus, and Paul says to them, therefore take heed to yourselves and all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God. And those terms are interesting and important, okay? Overseers, episcopas, there is a responsibility for oversight given to elders that necessitates an accountable commitment on the part of those being watched over, right? It's an accountable commitment to shepherd. Poimain, what does a shepherd do? He keeps sheep in line and takes them to green pastures to eat good food and he cares for them and he goes after those that are missing, right? That presupposes an accountable commitment on the part of the sheep to submit to that shepherd, that poimain, okay? He says, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. The high cost of our redemption presupposes an accountable commitment to the body to which Jesus Christ has saved us, okay? It presupposes an accountable commitment. For verse 29, I know this that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you. There must be a distinction between those savage wolves and those accountable committed sheep. There must be. They'll come in not sparing the flock. Also, verse 30, from among yourselves, men will rise up speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves that presupposes that there must be an accountable commitment to distinguish between those sheep committed to the body, committed to true doctrine and those perverse men who rise up from among us who teach perverse things to lead disciples away to themselves. Therefore Paul says, watch and remember for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. You are accountable here to conduct yourselves as children of God and the household of God. I am accountable here to do the same. No doubt that Paul was referring here to an identifiable and exclusive group of people called the church. And that church is to circle the wagons, so to speak, and purge out 11 from among them. And that is an ongoing work that is necessary and that requires, necessitates an accountable commitment on the part of those people who are committed to Jesus Christ, committed to the truth, right? Second reason for a specific form. Why don't we have a covenant? Because you coming into covenant membership with the church, me coming into covenant member with the church are submitted to elders. We are to submit ourselves to elders. Hebrews chapter 13, verse seven. Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow considering the outcome of their conduct. You're to remember them. Hebrews 13, 17, obey those who have the rule over you. Be submissive for they watch out for your souls as those who must give an account. Let them do so with joy, not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. You're accountable. You're committed to submit yourself to your elders. Make it a joy for them to rule over you. Revelation, or first Peter chapter five, verse five. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. That presupposes an accountable commitment to the church and accountable commitment to one another. Revelation, chapter three, verse one, we are submitted to our head as the body of Christ. To the angel of the church in Sardis, write. The angel that John is writing now on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ to an identifiable group of people in Sardis called this church. And in verse four, he says, you have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, even in the church. There's being a distinction made in that church at Sardis between those in the church who have defiled their garments and those in the church who have not defiled their garments. Sardis should be dealing with those biblically in love with those who have defiled their garments and Sardis isn't. They have now a reputation of being the dead church. You have a few names in Sardis who've not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. This all presupposes an accountable commitment. Someone mentioned church discipline, right? Thirdly, first, we're to be distinguished from the world. Secondly, we are submitted to elders. Thirdly, coming into the church, you are submitted to its censures, submitted to its government. And we're speaking here specifically of church discipline. We practice church discipline here. And so when you come into membership, you're saying I want to be an accountable member of the Lord's church. I want to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to live consistently with my profession. I want the means that God has appointed to preserve me in the faith. And I'm willing to commit myself to those things, to be accountable to the people of God such that if I abandon my profession, I want you to come after me. Don't let me run off out of here with no accountability, with no love and just disappear into the Netherland, right? Come get me. That's what you're saying when you are accountable member of the church, when you submit yourself to the discipline of the church. You're saying, don't let me fall away. Don't let me do it. And in the grace and mercy of God, he has appointed that means by which he may preserve you in the faith. So we are to be submitted to its censures. We won't go into the texts. Matthew 18, Romans chapter 16, really good expression of that we'll cover in several years. So, A, it's an accountable commitment. B, that commitment is expressed through covenant. That commitment is expressed through covenant. Commitment to the covenant. Voluntary submission and commitment is often in the Bible expressed through covenant. We are in covenant with the Lord. It's called the new covenant, whereby God through Jesus Christ has done wondrous and gracious and merciful things for us. We are in commitment, in covenant with the Lord by virtue of our faith in Jesus Christ, by virtue of repentant faith. We've entered into covenant with him. It is very common, not unusual at all, for those people who are in covenant with the Lord to express that covenant commitment with their own covenant commitments. We see that all through the scripture. In Deuteronomy chapter 29, people are, we don't have time to go into all these, write these texts down and look at them this week. They'll be a blessing to you. It'll help you understand the basis for why we use a church covenant. Deuteronomy chapter 29 verse 10, people are entering into covenant with the Lord. The Lord has entered into covenant with them and what do they do? They turn and express their commitment to that covenant with their own covenant, right? And that's common in scripture. Nehemiah chapter nine verse 38. And because of all this, we make a sure covenant and write it. Our leaders, our Levites and our priests seal it. Those people are in covenant with the living God. Second Kings 23, Josiah restores true worship in Israel and they read from the book of the law. And when they read from the book of the law, of the people weep and then they renew their commitment to the Lord through covenant. Listen to verse one. Now the king sent them together, all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem to him. The king went up to the house of the Lord with all the men of Judah with him all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets and all the people both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant which had been found in the house of the Lord. Amazing, they had lost it. It had been covered up under a pile of garbage in the Lord's house in the temple and they were cleaning it out and found the book of the law. Can you imagine? So what happens? The king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the Lord. This is highly commendable what Josiah does. To follow the Lord, to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his salt. Listen, what are we to do? Right? The Lord saves us from our sin. He forgives us. He gives us the promise of his spirit, the gift of his spirit to a dwell us. I am a forgiven, justified, reconciled sinner. And God has made me right with himself, given me an unspeakable inheritance. What is the quote unquote natural then? Response of a newly created heart. What is our response? God, I will serve you heart, soul, mind and strength. I want nothing else. I want you and you only, you only are my God. My portion forever, right? I give my life to you. Heart, soul, mind and strength, it's all yours, right? That's, and so what do people do, right? They express that. That's a covenant commitment that we make in prayer, right? What these folks are doing is writing it down. They're saying, this is what I want. This is how I want to serve the Lord, right? For all that he's done for me, I'm constrained, right? The love of Christ for me compels me. So that's what they did. All his heart, all his soul to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book and all the people took a stand for the covenant. When you join our church, you're taking a stand for the covenant to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, heart, soul, mind and strength, until he calls you home. Amen. And then you'll serve him in eternity, unfettered by sin. Second chronicles, 15, 10, you see the same thing. It's a commitment to the covenant. Secondly, it's a commitment of the heart. Spurgeon, we'll close with this. Spurgeon said this of his testimony. He says, I well remember how I joined the church after my conversion. I forced myself into it by telling the minister who was lax and slow, after I had called four or five times and could not see him, that I had done my duty. And if he did not see me, I would call a church meeting myself and tell them, I believe in Christ and ask them if they would have me. Somebody correct me. I believe that Spurgeon was five years old when he was converted, seven years old when he was converted. Spurgeon was converted very young. And this is Spurgeon's response, right? I want to be a committed member of a biblical church because that's what the Lord Jesus Christ has called me to be and I am ready to press in by force if necessary to be a part of that, right? Spurgeon understood the best blessings, thank you, brother. Spurgeon understood the blessings of church commitment, church membership, thank you, brother. Church membership is not only a commitment on the member's part to the church, but church membership, covenant church membership is also a commitment on the church's part to that covenant member. And we're committed here to love you and to take care of you, to bear burdens together and to pray together. We love this church, love you and care for you. And that's why we have a covenant. We don't have time this morning to go into the specific form of its content and look at the covenant itself. I trust that you'll do that. We'll do that together at Membership Matters here in a couple of weeks. But know this, that it's through that covenant, we take covenants all the time, right? You, when you are employed at a new job, most likely you're getting a job description, you're making a covenant. We witnessed a beautiful covenant yesterday. This covenant is not unlike that covenant in many respects, right? So when you make a covenant here, we, you and I are staying together and we're committed to each other and we are committed to the Lord and we wanna serve the Lord as he has instructed us to serve him for our good and we wanna remain committed to those good and necessary instructions. And so we're taking a stand for the covenant. Don't treat the covenant like a common thing. So many people today, they make covenants, sign covenants and then they just discard a covenant like it's nothing, right? And they're out of here and it's like until I get to the point where you offend me, I'll be, I don't know what you have that is not a covenant. What you have is a selfish, self-willed, prideful, something other. We're to be committed here. And a covenant, it keeps us from just sort of pulling the ejection handle and bolting out of here when things get tough. You can't do that in your marriage. You don't have like an escape button or an ejection button. What's the reason for that? It's because it takes hard work and you need to be committed to that hard work and that hard work is for your good, for the good of your marriage and for the good of what it pictures about Christ and the church. We're to be committed to one another and that covenant is exceedingly important. So you need to be thinking ahead about that. If you're already a member here, you know the importance of that and we wanna hold one another to it. If you're considering membership here, think about what you're getting yourself into. It's a beautiful thing, it's a good thing, but it is an accountable commitment. Okay, let's pray and get you out of here. We'll go to service. Father in heaven, Lord, we thank you for your grace and mercy to us in entering into covenant with us through Jesus Christ. Thank you for the blessedness of that covenant. Thank you, Lord, that it's not by our own works that we have entered in and not by our own lovableness. It's not by our own ability to commit ourselves but sure, by your sheer grace and mercy to us that we are in covenant with you, but we commit ourselves with the new heart that you've given us by virtue of your spirit in dwelling us. We commit ourselves with your help to endeavor to follow you in repentant faith and commit ourselves to one another, your body to live with one another in this covenant relationship as we follow you and we commit to serve one another and love one another as you've called us to for our own good and for your glory. Help us to do that. We have no strength in it of ourselves. We need your spirit. Help us to be committed to these things. In Jesus' name, amen.